The creation of effective, easily produced, and competitively priced load bearing, supporting, and/or cushioning elements has long been sought in many different and diverse areas. In this regard, the need for load bearing, supporting, and/or cushioning elements is a requirement in many industries for use in many end products, as well as in transportation, product safety, and product protection. As a result, substantial effort has been expended in developing and improving existing products, with all of such efforts failing to achieve a single, universally applicable product which is capable of satisfying all of the needs and requirements of the various industries and end uses.
One area which typifies the inherent requirements imposed upon a viable product is the bedding and furniture industry. In this regard, mattresses, seats, cushions, upholstered products, and the like require load bearing, supporting, and/or cushioning elements to satisfy users by providing the comfort being sought from these products. Although the following discussion focuses upon this industry, the focus is provided as a single example of the numerous other industries in which load bearing, supporting, and/or cushioning elements of similar physical characteristics are required. One-example of such other industries is the packaging industry wherein load bearing, cushioning, and/or supporting elements are employed for protecting a wide variety of products from damage during shipment and delivery.
In regard to the mattress and furniture industry, most mattresses, seats, and upholstered items have universally employed coil spring members formed from metal as the principal element for providing support and comfort to individuals using the particular product. Although coil spring members formed from metal have been widely accepted as the principal element to provide the desired support for individuals in these products, substantial difficulties have been encountered in producing products incorporating coil springs.
In particular, substantial manual effort is typically required to produce products incorporating coil springs, due to the requirement that the spring members be interconnected with each other to achieve the desired overall support. In addition, the metal material employed, the coil configuration, its length, configuration, etc. must also be carefully controlled in order to assure that the coil spring assembly will provide the desired support and comfort to the user. In this regard, due to the personal nature and preference individuals have for a desirable level of support and comfort, particularly in mattresses, the industry has been required to introduce a wide variety of alternate configurations and constructions which surrounds the coil spring base, in order to provide various levels of support and comfort. This effort has necessitated the industry to incur substantial additional costs in attempting to satisfy consumer desires.
Furthermore, material costs have continued to escalate, causing the metal employed in the coil springs to become increasingly expensive. As a result, the mattresses, seats, and upholstery produced using coil springs have increased in price due to the substantial added expense of the metal materials.
As a result of these difficulties and drawbacks, substantial effort has been expended in attempting to achieve substitute materials and constructions for reducing and/or eliminating coil springs from mattresses, seats, upholstery, and the like. The following patents exemplify the constructions that have been developed in the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,704,962 claims the elastic body, made from foamed polyurethane or polystyrene polymer, and the mattress constructed by using such elastic body. The elastic body has circular shape of across section and it is not hollow.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,423 claims a string of connected and individually jacketed cushioning elements, which are in plug-like (cylinder) form. Those elements are not three-dimensionally cured and are not hollow.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,286,167 claims to use cylindrically-shaped support elements or the like laying inside the slots that are separated by sleeves for mattress core.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,027 claims an integrated matrix bedding system, in which cylindrical shaped glands are placed inside the holes of foam cushion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,488 claims the mattress that comprise of an integrally molded sheet-like base and a plurality of discrete foam elements.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,352 claims bellows-like spring through blow molding process and slotted extrusion member as cushion
U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,854 claims using strips of arch-like segments for cushion. The strips are arranged side by side with offset from each other.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,255 claims elastic springy element, which is tubular body having a plurality of hollows arranged in staggered symmetry through its tubular wall. The wall along the direction of axis of the body is not cured.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,974,532 claims using a plurality of elongated padding members disposed in parallel on a base member of mattress.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,768,924 claims a cushioning cavity layer consisting of a plurality of angularly spread apart columns and each having its upper end and lower end joined.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,539,058 claims using fibrous coil element embedded in the cylindrical cells as cushion.
As is evident from foregoing discussion and the teaching found in the above identified prior art patents, the industry has incurred a substantial effort in attempting to overcome the difficulties and drawbacks of coil metal springs. However, in spite of this substantial effort, no construction has been developed which completely eliminates the prior art problems.
Therefore, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a load bearing, supporting, and/or cushioning element which is capable of being mass-produced in a cost-efficient manner.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a load bearing, supporting, and/or cushioning element having the characteristic features described above which is capable of being employed as a single element as well as in combination with a plurality of similarly constructed elements cooperatively associated therewith.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a load bearing, supporting, and/or cushioning element having the characteristic features described above which is formed from polymeric material in a three-dimensional, hollow shape.
Another object to the present action is to provide a load bearing, supporting, and/or cushioning element having the characteristic features described above which is capable of being quickly and easily assembled into a finished product for any desired use.
Other and more specific object will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.